In the Offing

In the offing

Meaning

Imminent; likely to happen soon.

Origin

This is one of the many phrases of nautical origin. It is quite simple
to understand once you know that 'the offing' is the part of the sea
that can be seen from land, excluding those parts that are near the
shore. Early texts also refer to it as 'offen' or 'offin'.

Someone who was watching out for a ship to arrive would first see it
approaching when it was 'in the offing' and expected to dock before
the next tide. Something that is 'in the offing' isn't happening now
or even in a minute or two, but will inevitably happen before too
long. The phrase has migrated from its naval origin into general use
in the language and is now used to describe any event that is
imminent.

In its literal nautical sense, the phrase has been in use since the
late 16th century and the earliest citation of it that I have found is
a quotation from S. Argoll from 1610 which was reported by S. Purchas
in Purchas his Pilgrimes, in 1906:

"I came to an Anchor in seven fathomes water in the offing to sea."

The phrase wasn't commonly used until the beginning of the 18th
century, as in this example from Josiah Burchett's Memoirs of
Transactions at Sea During the War with France, 1703. This is,
incidentally, a classic example of the use of the long form of the
letter 's' in 18th century printing:

...fome other fmall Ships were feen in the Offing. Thofe Ships ftood
away with their Boats a-head, fetting fire to fome, and deftroying and
deferting other of their fmall veffels.

All of the 18th century citations of 'in the offing' refer to the
offing as a physical place. It wasn't until the mid 19th century, in
America, that our presently understood figurative meaning began to be
used. An early example of that comes in S. B. Beckett's Portland
Reference Book and City Directory, 1850:

We have known wives to forget that they had husbands when they
supposed that a tax bill or a notification to do military duty was in
the offing.